A trip down south to Valencia

With holidays around the corner, and an impending goodbye to Europe for a few months, me and my friends decided to make a trip to Valencia, the third biggest city, located on the east coast of Spain, south of Barcelona, where we currently live. The reputation of Valencia amongst my friends and colleagues induced an expectation that was pretty damn high. But I’ll tell it now, before I even start, that Valencia didn’t disappoint. At all. In three days, we managed to hunt down almost every hotspot and to-do’s (mostly outdoorsy stuff…we couldn’t go into some of the cool museums they had). Here, I’ll be talking about the places we went and the personal experiences I had with Valencia.
(p.s. Pictures can be enlarged)

THE OLD TOWN

Wondering off in the old town of Valencia (also the city center) by your own has no shortcomings, because every square looks beautiful and picturesque, and every alley and street are worth getting lost into. But its always nice to get some information about the beautiful monuments, statues, cathedrals, churches and the backstory behind them. So, to learn a bit about Valencia, we did a walking tour around the old town. The tour lasted two and a half hours, and pretty much covered the history of the city right from the first century. The trip took us to fantastic gothic churches, historical buildings and grand palaces which was full of life. The weather was spectacular (21o C in summer wasn’t bad at all), there were lots of people, and it was impossible not to find dance, music and other performances in the squares. The highlight for me was Plaza de la Virgen, which was something you couldn’t miss in Valencia. It felt like it was the heart of Valencia, with the beautiful Cathedral, the Turia Fountain and Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados right there. The Central Market that was also close-by was huge, with a lot of local stuff for sale, most interesting (for me) being sea food, from squids to octopuses and clams, they had everything (I couldn’t take pictures because lots of people and chaos!).

Because the tour guide recommended us to visit a museum that enclosed an excavation of roman settlements, we went there too to see what it had to offer. Its name was Almoina Archeological Center and when I went inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes because it was huge. It felt like we entered into an entire roman town that had houses, storage buildings, squares, baths and even burial sites. I had visited a similar excavation site in Cologne, but this was far bigger and better. The city was colonized by Romans in 138 BC and was under their rule for as long as the 4th Century. It was amazing to see buildings that were thousands of years old whose remains were still preserved in site under the center of a modern city.

Plaza de La Virgen

Sights from the Old Town

 Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados

Almoina Archaeological Site (picture by Erik Salkeld)

CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

After walking through the medieval and pre-medieval streets of Valencia for just under 45 minutes, we were at the City of Arts and Sciences, which looked completely different from where we were previously. I mean, it felt like I travelled through time from the Ancient ruins of the Roman Empire to a futuristic city. The new-age architecture was stunning, something right out of a fiction novel. I later found out that some of the filming of the movie “Tomorrowland” was done in this location, and some of the futuristic buildings in the movie were real buildings of Valencia City of Arts and Sciences. We were there at the best time because on that day, at around 5 pm, the sunset looked beautiful. The red hue from the sunset reflected upon the magnificent facades of the futuristic buildings that made them look surreal, and we could only sit there and stare at its beauty, and take pictures of course.

Anyways, we were told that the whole “City” took 1 billion euros of initial investment, and god knows how much it costs to maintain it every year. It had a Science Museum, the Ágora (a multifunctional venue for events), Hemisferic (an Imax and 3d movie center), and the Ubracle (which for me looked like a general urban space where you could have a good view of the “future”). We didn’t have enough time to go inside but I can imagine that it would be equally brilliant.

Sights from City of Arts and Sciences

Behind the Sculpture is the Opera House of Valencia

The Hemisferic complemented by a spectacular sunset

The Umbracle on the right, Ágora on the center and the Science Museum on the left

THE GHOST RIVER

No, its not haunted, and they don’t call it that. The river is called Turia, but there is no river. Well, there used to be one back in the day. The Turia river used to run sort of longitudinally originating from the Mediterranean Sea towards the west of the city, and used to cause a lot of problems due to floods. The flood in 1957 was so devastating that the government decided to divert the river towards its western outskirts, creating a dry river-bed along the city. While the initial plan was to make a highway right in between, the Valencian Authorities decided to make the dry riverbed a park, and that was a very good decision in the end. They incorporated the residue of a problem into an essential component of the urban fabric that promoted wellbeing and inclusiveness, and improved the landscape within the city which was genius. The park had small ponds, gardens, managed and unmanaged trees, fields for sports and other activities, and it was very accessible to the public because it spanned throughout the whole city. Its something I could have never thought about – Turning a river into a city park. It was great.

A Garden in the Turia Park 

Some sights from the Turia Park

Underneath a bridge of the then Turia River, which is now a metro Station

The park spans through the city, along the river bed of Turia

It wasn’t only the city but the experiences we had and the things we did that made the trip special. I’m sure we wouldn’t have had as much fun if we didn’t eat the Valencian Paella (a dish with Rice, originally invented in Valencia but very popular all over Spain), roam around the city aimlessly, tired and hungry, without finding a good place for food, or if we didn’t try some of the Horchata (a sweet drink made of Almonds, milk and sesame seeds, which turns out, is pretty popular out there ), or visit some bars and try Agua de Valencia (a cocktail made up of a base of champagne with gin and orange juice) with some new people we met at the hostel, and if we didn’t decide to “jam” , singing songs in the hostel terrace with the new friends we made. I did have a few not-so-good experiences, particularly with my hostel room, but everything came with a package and in the end, it was an overwhelmingly good experience.

A traditional Paella for three!

A view from Torres De Quart (spot me)

I don’t imagine myself going back to Valencia again, because there are so many other places to see and so less time!!! But I’m really glad I went there because it’s a city that is definitely worth seeing.